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OPINION

Pellegrini can't polish a turd

By Tony McDonald

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

TUESDAY, May 22, 2018 will go down as one of the most satisfying – if somewhat surreal – days as a West Ham United supporter in recent memory.

At 8.00am came the unbelievable announcement that Manuel Pellegrini had been appointed as our new manager. Halfway through the day I was still pinching myself, struggling to comprehend the truth of the dream. I half expected to be woken up and told that David Moyes was staying and had signed a new three-year contract. I'd have slit my wrists.

By early evening I was back at the London Stadium for the first time since West Ham played there in their curtain-raiser, against NK Domzale in the Europa League third qualifying round, on August 4, 2016. Maybe it was much too soon, the emotions too raw, after the sad move from the Boleyn Ground but I vowed at the time never to return to what is, and probably always will be, an athletics stadium rather than a suitable football arena.

None of the abject misery and despair associated with our new rented premises at Stratford in the past two seasons has tempted me to rethink my entrenched view and end my self-imposed exile to the living room sofa. In recent months I've even declined the offer of a free ticket from my two sons (they both have season tickets overlooking Hackney, I believe) to see some decent visiting sides, including Manchester City, who you had to admire for playing a much different game to the rest of the Premier League. "It's on the telly, why would I want to put myself through the queuing, the security searches, the idiots hollering all sorts of banalities wherever you look, and the snail-like queues from stadium to station?"

After 50 years as a supporter, I think I've earned the right to say enough is enough and stay away. There's much more to life than West Ham and football itself.

But I was back there last night, feeling upbeat and in good spirits (not only down to the pre-concert doubles of Hendricks) to watch my favourite band, The Rolling Stones, deliver a typically entertaining performance.

Pellegrini and The Stones on the same day! Can it possibly get any better than that?

With the cerebral 64-year-old Chilean in charge, it just might do. A "typically entertaining performance" might become . . . typical.

And wouldn't that be a wonderful thing after all the rubbish fans have endured under Moyes and, before the likeable Slaven Bilic, the equally negative Big Sham.

People who have read my miserable ramblings on Twitter and Facebook will know that I never wanted BS or Moyes anywhere near West Ham, although their apologists will keep banging on about how 'they did all that was asked of them'. Really? If that's the case, I only wish David Sullivan had happened to mention in passing during their job interviews that showing occasional attacking intent, like more than one of our players being encouraged to cross the halfway line at away grounds rather than setting up to draw 0-0, and a sincere stab at the two domestic cup competitions wouldn't go amiss, but it seems we can't have everything.

I'll give Moyes credit for one thing: his re-positioning of the spiky Arnautovic as a centre-forward deserves credit. He certainly got the best out of a difficult, shaky personality who always looks like he's teetering on the brink of a brain-fade moment. But then we were all left wondering how much better he could have been with a team-mate alongside him in the same post code, especially in games against opponents we should expect to beat at home.

Moyes bore the look of a rejected man desperate to be loved and appreciated after the trauma of his Manchester United sacking and failure to save Sunderland from freefall. But not until the final home game against his former club Everton did he begin to loosen his straitjacket and finally release the shackles. He should reflect on his seven months with us as a period of regret.

Now is not the time for further recriminations, though. I'm too cynical and long in the tooth to get too carried away by the Pellegrini 'coup' at this very early stage but I can't deny it has given me new hope after giving up on any progress while the current regime remain at the helm of a wobbly ship.

Now Sullivan and co. need to back their new man with serious money, to equip him with the right tools to do his job effectively and fulfil his obvious potential. Pellegrini shouldn't be asked to polish a turd. Pep Guardiola would have struggled to get West Ham much higher than 13th last season given the relentless injury problems and general inability of too many average and poor players. True, we would obviously have been much more watchable under the Catalan (hardly a difficult achievement) but I doubt how many more points he would have accrued with the squad Bilic and Moyes both struggled with.

As well as giving Pellegrini the financial armoury to compete, the board must also let him get on with his job without undermining or interfering. The silly, misguided tweets and media leaks must cease if the former Manchester City, Real Madrid, Malaga and Villarreal coach is to flourish.